Contrary to Popular Belief
by Chaos Dragon
Summary: Contrary to popular belief, Artemis and Wally have not been together for five years. Spitfire, drabbleish.


Contrary to Popular Belief

Contrary to popular belief, Artemis and Wally have not been together for five years.

After they first admitted to caring about each other and started dating, they wait a year to have sex. Being each other's first is a big deal and they want to make sure it's right. They're paranoid, too. Condoms, birth control, and the morning after pill the one time the condom breaks are considered requirements, not suggestions. This doesn't mean that Artemis doesn't have freak out moments where she takes a zeta tube three states away to buy a pregnancy test or three.

It does mean that when one tests positive fourteen months later she has no idea what to do.

So she says nothing, quietly panics, and when a mission comes up latches on to the excuse gladly just so she doesn't have to think about the fact that she's going to be a mother, and Wally is going to be a father, and nothing is ever going to be the same again.

The assumption that a mission will ever be routine flies right out the door the second they hit the docks in Gotham. Somewhere in the back of her mind Artemis knows that she shouldn't be here, but it's already too late for that. Six and a half minutes later the front of her mind is screaming it at her, but she's too busy falling from the catwalk one of the Joker's henchman just threw her from.

Six and three-quarter minutes later she's caught roughly by Wally. Instead of thanking him, or just snarking at him, she clutches her stomach where his shoulder had just dug in.

Ten hours later she's well aware of the fact that no, she isn't going to be a mother, Wally isn't going to be a father, and nothing will _ever_ be the same again.

She picks a fight with Wally over absolutely nothing just so she can zeta to Gotham and avoid him for the next two weeks. When she sees him again, finally, he is contrite, nearly in tears, and begging her to forgive him for whatever he did wrong. So she insults him, hurts him, and breaks up with him.

It's easier than telling him that between the two of them, it's their own fault that they were going to be teenage parents, except that it's their own fault again (alright, _her_ own fault) that the child they'd accidentally created is nothing more than a statistic.

They stay apart for an entire week before Artemis breaks and realizes that no matter what, she can't get through any of this without Wally, whether or not he knows. Fortunately she's been staying with Zatanna, who is currently dating Dick, who calls Wally when Artemis locks herself in the bathroom crying for hours.

And even though Artemis gave him the razor edge of her tongue, Wally is there in a flash (though he never makes the pun) to help her pick up the pieces. She doesn't tell him why there are pieces in the first place, never actually apologizes, but Wally forgives her without a second thought. Without ever saying a word about it they become an unbroken couple.

And even though the next many months are horrible at times, they get through it, because Wally says they can get through anything, and Artemis has learned that sometimes it's just smart to listen to him.

xXx

(Twelve years later when they go to her first prenatal appointment Artemis is going to have to tell the doctor that yes, she's been pregnant, and it ended in a miscarriage due to outside factors. Wally will be understandably confused, concerned, and completely shocked. When Artemis tells him the truth of what happened when they were teenagers he will go on the best attempt at a bender he's ever made.

Three days later Dick will drag him home to Artemis.

After days of talking, accusations, and tears, Wally will pull off his wedding ring and spend an entire day sitting on the front steps looking at it. When Artemis comes home that night, it will be back where it belongs, on his finger, and he will kiss her and tell her everything is going to be alright. They can get through anything.

Even this.

And they will.)


End file.
